


ill at ease

by shindouchrono



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: M/M, Trypophobia, eating things you shouldn't, lotus disease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 21:00:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16048472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shindouchrono/pseuds/shindouchrono
Summary: Between Stride Gate, Diffriders, Gyze, it’s not like Chrono hadn’t ever seen something out of the ordinary. In fact, most days, his life felt pretty goddamn strange. Like something out of an anime. But this?This was weird.





	ill at ease

Between Stride Gate, Diffriders, _Gyze_ , it’s not like Chrono hadn’t ever seen something out of the ordinary. In fact, most days, his life felt pretty goddamn strange. Like something out of an anime. But this?

This was weird.

Maybe he should have thought it was gross. The ridges on his collarbone. And he kind of did, honestly, find it a bit gross. But it was somehow impossible not to look at. Not in the, _“Wow, this is so bad I can’t stop looking,”_ kind of way. It was like a food you weren’t sure you liked or not, so you just keep eating even though there’s a 90% chance you’d regret it later.

Chrono didn’t think it was _bad_ , though. Just kind of… weird.

He pokes at it. It feels exactly like it looks, but it’s more like running your hands over something smooth, only including several raised spots as if there were something underneath. It didn’t look how skin was supposed to-- not like Chrono knew much about how everything should look, but he knew it seemed a bit off.

So he doesn’t pay it any mind, and simply waits for it to go away. 

 

* * *

 

But then a week passes, and it’s still not gone.

Worst of all, it’s starting to get itchy. Which is distracting during class and outright infuriating when he’s trying to do anything other than think about how _itchy_ it is.

Chrono tries to just pat it. It doesn’t really help, and it just kind of stings. With a sigh, the sensation makes him realize he probably scratched at it too much. “Probably” meaning that it’s _definitely_ bleeding. He’d take it too far with things like that, like with mosquito bites. They’d bleed for days and always end up bruising and scabbing.

Putting on his shoes and shutting his locker, it’s still hard to think about anything other than the nagging urge to scratch. Chrono purposefully bumps his head into the locker, exhaling deeply. It hurts, but relief follows for a quick second. And then he hears a confused voice from behind.

“What are you doing?”

Chrono turns his head to see his boyfriend standing there with a puzzled look on his face. Kazuma’s hands are in his pockets and his head is tilted to the side.

“Yo, Kazuma. I’m, uh…” The redhead pauses, unsure how far he should get into it. “I’m fine. It’s nothing. I think I just got a bug bite or something.”

“I might have some anti-itch stuff if you need it. That sucks, though.” Kazuma says, leaning his shoulder on the locker. He has that ‘maybe purposefully cool’ aura surrounding him that Chrono will never tell him about. His heart flutters.

Chrono readjusts the bag on his shoulder that isn’t currently bleeding. The opposite shoulder doesn’t feel like it’s stopped bleeding, which is weird. Just how badly did he scratch it open? “That’d be nice.”

“I’ll bring it tomorrow.” He flashes a casual smile.

“Kazuma,” Chrono starts. “You wanna walk back together? It’d be nice if I could have you help get my mind off the bug bite. It’s… more irritating than my usual ones.”

A look of concern crosses Kazuma’s face, and he seems like he wants to say something but doesn’t.  

They make casual conversation, and for the most part it takes his mind off the whatever-it-was on his shoulder.

Honestly?

Chrono didn’t think it was a bug bite, but it was much easier and much less concerning if he said it was a bug bite. He didn’t know what it was, and didn’t really know anyone who did know. Or who would know?

Tokoha, maybe. She played Neo Nectar, she knew about plants.

He’d ask her later. When he was home and after he had looked at it.

“See you.” Chrono kisses Kazuma on the cheek.

Again. That glance of confusion. But Kazuma doesn’t say anything, again, he just waves and leaves. Chrono isn’t sure what that expression means. They normally kiss each other goodbye on the lips, but--

Chrono scratches his shoulder. Since he still didn’t know what it is, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

 

* * *

 

As usual, Mikuru isn’t home. Chrono takes his shoes off and puts down his school bag on the couch. Pulling a bottle of tea out, he drinks the whole thing in one go. He didn’t think he was that thirsty, but the container was empty now.

He sighs, and then that sigh turns into an aggravated groan.

It’d been itching all day, but suddenly his shoulder starts tingling. Chrono shrugs his jacket off, and tries to hang it over a chair and stops. It felt wet. No, not just wet. It felt sticky.

Turning it over in his hands, Chrono examines the fabric in his hands. His mouth falls open once he sees _it._

Chrono had expected a little bit of blood-- maybe more than a little, with how much it had been bugging him. But he didn’t expect this.

Pink.

It was pink. A light, gentle, and soft pink.

And it smelled familiar. Weirdly familiar. Familiar in the way that it was uncomfortable. Chrono couldn’t quite pin down what the smell was-- but it was for lack of better word, intoxicating. Like when you knew something you liked was being cooked in the kitchen and you could feel your mouth water.

With shaking hands, Chrono touches his own shoulder.

“Ah.” He exclaims.

It feels like honey in terms of texture, and it’s soaking through his shirt. How would you even clean that? It’d probably ruin everything else in the washer.

But as he keeps touching, he feels something else. Something bumpy. The feeling he had a week before comes back and hits him like a train. Chrono thinks he feels as if there’s something underneath the ridges that formed on his skin. Is there?

He rushes to the bathroom. Anxiety prickles in every part of his body. It’s suddenly hard to breathe-- but Chrono couldn’t tell if that was the panic or the obtrusively sweet smell in the air. It was too much. It was already overwhelming, and he hadn’t even looked yet.

Making eye contact in with his reflection in the mirror, he slowly-- _slowly_ looks at his shoulder. He hasn’t tried to unbutton his shirt yet. But with his anxiously shaking fingers, could he even do it?

Chrono clicks his tongue and starts unbuttoning, all the way down until the shirt falls off his shoulders.

A gasp makes its way out of his throat.

Seeds.

Coming out of his skin.

He covers his mouth, bile burning in his throat. Chrono nearly throws up. His head is spinning and he’s leaning over the counter with his hand resting on it because suddenly-- suddenly he can’t stand. The air is too thick.

Chrono looks up into the mirror again. Shock doesn’t get him this time, and he stares. Holes in his skin, with seeds protruding out of them. Was he suddenly a plant? Part plant? What was even going on?

Swallowing his spit, he touches his bare shoulder. Skin that should have been familiar suddenly isn’t. He can feel the seeds when he runs his finger over them. Chrono shivers at the strange feeling. When he pulls his fingers away, they’re covered in light pink. The same as the stuff on his shirt and jacket.

It drips off his fingers like syrup.

Something in his brain, the part that didn’t quite have the inhibitions it needed, said to eat it. To _try_ it. It came from his body, so there’s no way it could be poisonous or anything, right?

Probably.

Against his better judgement, Chrono raises his fingers to his mouth and puts them in. It collects on his tongue like eating raw honey. It’s so, so, so, so sweet. Sweet enough to make his brain spin. He wipes his mouth and washes his hands.

When Chrono looks up in the mirror, he sees his cheeks are flushed.

Covering his face with his hands, he sighs. Weirdly enough he felt embarrassed, even though he was alone. Standing in his bathroom. Eating some weird syrup that came out of him.

He peers back into the mirror, leaning in close. He finally realizes, and he feels stupid for not putting two and two together earlier.

The soft pink color. The sweet smell. The taste, like a candy he had once.

Cherry blossoms.

Chrono didn’t dislike them. He just had a weird and slightly unsettling association. He resists the urge to touch his shoulder again, and notices it… stopped itching? Was it because he ate the…

Syrup, he decides.

Was it because he ate the syrup?

His mind still feels foggy, but he realizes something. It isn’t a great idea. It was, possibly, a really bad idea, because there were seeds growing out of his skin and he just ate the syrup they were coated in. Chrono didn’t know how or why they were just-- coming out of him, and he ate it?!

Who knows what would happen next.

“I should tell someone.”

But who? Tokoha and Shion were probably busy around this time, which left his boyfriend, an option Chrono was admittedly avoiding, just because…

He didn’t want to gross Kazuma out with this. Seeds, growing out of his skin. That’s strange no matter what way you think about it. Was there much of a choice, though? If something bad happened to him…

Chrono walks back into the kitchen, shirt still half on.

Pausing, he latches the door.

He pulls the shirt back over his shoulders but doesn’t bother buttoning it up. He’s home alone and covering it up felt like a bad idea, especially if he wanted a shot at cleaning it. Maybe when-- _if_ Kazuma came over, he’d put it back on.

_Can you come over?_

A reply comes in record time.

_Yeah. I’m in the area. Less than five minutes._

Chrono swallows his spit, which is distressingly sweet. Why was Kazuma so close? Once he dropped Chrono off, did he just… linger around? Was Chrono too obvious that something was wrong? Or maybe he just wasn’t good at hiding things like that.

He rocks back and forth on his heels, anxious. Oh, wait, he needs to button up his shirt. But his hands are shaking too badly for him to do it properly. Chrono sighs in annoyance.

The doorbell rings, and he’s less irritated and a bit more… panicky.

Paying little attention to how well he’s doing it, Chrono fumbles with the rest of the buttons. They aren’t even, and he screwed them up, but that didn’t matter right now. He opens the door, but the latch prevents it from opening all the way.

Kazuma’s face is hardly visible, but he looks worried.

“Chrono?” He asks, voice somehow more concerned than his expression.

“Um. Hi.” Chrono replies. “I... okay. Don’t freak out. It’s gross. Like, really gross. I just-- well, I can explain better in a second. Hold on.”

He opens the door wide enough so that Kazuma can walk in. More than that, the raven-haired male takes in his boyfriend’s appearance.

Chrono’s hair was all mussed up, and his shirt had been hastily buttoned. Combined with flushed cheeks and a nervous expression, it was safe to say the redhead looked quite a mess.

And the smell. It smelled so sweet. Was Chrono baking something? But the kitchen didn’t look used, and the oven was off. It wasn’t sweet like sugar, though. It was something different.

Once Kazuma’s inside, Chrono shuts and locks the door. And, after a moment of deliberation-- he latches it, too.

Wordlessly, the redhead walks to his bedroom and Kazuma follows. It’s the same yet completely different as every other time he’s visited.

 

* * *

 

Kazuma sits down on the bed, watching as Chrono locks his bedroom door, too.

“Okay. Just, um, I don’t know. It’s bad.” Chrono says. And then he starts unbuttoning his shirt, but his fingers are shaking. Kazuma leans back on his hands.

The words _"don't freak out"_ linger on the redhead's tongue, but he can't get them out. They're too heavy in his throat.

Kazuma’s nervous, but he doesn’t want to say that because Chrono obviously was too. Kazuma had a feeling it wasn’t a bug bite, and that Chrono just didn’t want to bother or worry Kazuma.

“You know,” he says, in the flirty tone he uses on Chrono constantly, but jokingly enough it was just to ease the tension, “If you were just going to immediately take your shirt off, I’d ask you’d text me in a way that’d make me less nervous.”

Chrono laughs, slightly forced but somewhat genuine. “I wish that was it.”

With a hesitant breath, Chrono lets his shirt fall off his shoulders onto the floor. His hands curl on the belt loops of his pants. “It’s… I don’t know what it is. They look like cherry blossom seeds. It-- it wasn’t like this at first. At first, it was just kind of weird and itchy. But when I got home I looked in the mirror and…”

Helplessly, Chrono gestures at himself.

They’re clustered in Chrono’s right collarbone, under and up to his shoulder. It nearly reaches up to his neck. And it’s dripping.

Kazuma realized this when he followed Chrono to his room, but that must have been the smell. The sweet scent.

Beckoning for him to come closer, Kazuma examines it. He’s still sitting on the bed, but Chrono is standing between his legs, looking anywhere but into Kazuma’s eyes. Which is fine, because he was intensely studying the seeds.

“They’re cherry blossom seeds.” He says this and looks up at the redhead, who’s making a face. “What’s that look for?”

Chrono wrinkles up his nose. “I kind of wanted to be wrong.”

“Don’t like them?” Kazuma asks. Chrono’s expression changes, to something vulnerable and slightly uncomfortable looking.

“No, I like them. I just had a weird experience with them, and now I can’t stop thinking about corpses when I see them.”

“Uh,” Raising a brow, Kazuma continues. “Just what kind of experience did you have with cherry blossoms that involved dead bodies?”

Still making that face, Chrono shrugs his shoulders. Kazuma’s entranced by the movement. “It’s just a poem about why cherry blossoms are so beautiful, ‘cause there’s corpses underneath. It was said differently when I was told that, but when I went to read it…”

Kazuma tries to ignore the feeling that bubbles up in his stomach when he sees Chrono shiver.

“Really graphic, you know? I mean, this,” Chrono tilts his head to the side. “This is kind of graphic, too, but at least _this_ tastes g--”

He stops speaking and his cheeks go the same color as the syrup in his neck.

“...Chrono, did you eat it?”

No response. Chrono reaches to nervously scratch at his neck, but Kazuma grabs at his hand before he can.

“S-Sorry. I grabbed you too hard. But it'll probably hurt more if you scratch at it.” He apologizes, looking back down at Chrono’s collarbone. It was normally distracting, but this time was different. Kazuma realizes his brain feels foggy, almost.

A haze.

“I-I might have had just a little bit. Probably not my best idea,” Chrono admits, and Kazuma gives him a look. “I know, I know. But I figured if it was coming out of me then it probably wasn’t going to kill me. Then I got nervous about it and… well, that’s when I messaged you. You came here really fast, didn’t you?”

“I did.” Kazuma replies. “The way you were acting had me worried, so I figured I’d stick around for a bit. If it was nothing, then I would have just gone home.”

“But it wasn’t nothing. Sorry, Kazuma.”

He leans into kiss Chrono’s shoulder, the one that doesn’t have the seeds. “Don’t apologize, unless you did this on purpose, which I doubt.”

“I didn’t. I just woke up with these ridges around a week ago. It’s only today they started doing this… I didn’t do anything different, and I don’t remember eating anything weird.”

“Hmm… That’s strange, if you didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary. You still eat the school’s bread?”

Chrono raises an eyebrow. “Uh, yeah? It’s good.”

“You never know.” Kazuma jokes, shaking his head. Chrono laughs, in that soft way he did when they’d both just woken up, and Kazuma would have kissed his cheek or something.

The redhead would jokingly protest and say it tickled while laughing in that same sweet fashion.

“I’m glad, though.” Chrono looks Kazuma in the eyes. “I was worried you’d freak out. I nearly puked when I first saw it, so...”

The raven-haired male glances back at the seeds. It makes sense. If Kazuma thought about it, he could understand why you might get sick looking at it. But still, there was that sense of… “desire” felt too deep of a word. Longing? Not quite.

The realization hits Kazuma like an oncoming car.

Kazuma was _enthralled._ Captivated by the pink syrup coming out of his boyfriend's body.

“Can I touch it?”

He looks taken aback, but after a moment of silence Chrono nods.

“Wait, hold on.” Kazuma scoots back on the bed, far enough that his back touches the wall and motions for Chrono to come closer. “Sit. It’ll probably be easier than having you stand. You’ll get tired.”

The bed creaks as Chrono climbs on it, adjusting so he’s in Kazuma’s lap. This isn’t out of the ordinary, but he looks slightly embarrassed. “Go ahead.”

Kazuma lifts his hand, and runs his fingers gently along the seeds coming out of Chrono.

" _Oh._ ” Is the immediate reaction, and Kazuma draws back. “No, no, it’s okay-- it just felt weird. It feels different when someone other than myself is touching it.”

“Okay. Tell me if it hurts, or if you want me to stop, okay?”

Chrono nods. “I will.”

He tries again, gentler this time. Kazuma strokes his fingers along Chrono’s skin, feeling the bumps and ridges of the seeds inside. His initial thoughts were correct-- the “syrup” felt as sticky as it looked. “Can I try to get one out?”

“S-Sure. I mean, alright. That’s fine.” Chrono’s slouched over on Kazuma, his arms resting almost limply at his sides.

Kazuma narrows his eyes, trying to figure out the best way to go about getting one of them out. They’re really lodged in there, but if he was gentle enough it probably wouldn’t hurt.

Probably.

He circles his finger around one of the seeds, and-- as gently as he can, starts to, well, put his finger in. There’s a bit of resistance, which was to be expected. The syrup coats his fingers in a way that should be unpleasant but isn’t.

“Kazuma…” Chrono says, arms wrapped tightly around him.

Leaning in, Kazuma kisses Chrono on the cheek. “Are you okay, babe?”

“Yeah. It just feels weird. It’s okay to keep going.”

So he does.

Chrono’s leaning in closer to Kazuma, more like it’s for support than anything else. His finger plunges deeper, and Chrono gasps in a way that’s so…

“...Does this moment feel really sexual, or is that just me?” Kazuma asks.

The corners of Chrono’s lips turn up and he stifles laughter. “It does, now that you mention it.” His cheeks go a bit redder. “Sorry if I sound weird.”

“Nothing I haven’t heard before.”

Chrono tries to frown but it comes out more like a pout, and Kazuma can’t help but smile. He goes back to doing what he’s doing. It takes a couple minutes, but the seed inside starts to loosen up.

Gradually, Chrono’s breathing gets heavier. His eyes are half-shut, but he hasn’t told Kazuma to stop just yet so he keeps going.

The spot he’d been working on gives, and Kazuma’s finger plunges in and suddenly he can feel Chrono’s fingers gripping tightly on his shirt.

“ _Nnn,_ fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Chrono’s gritting his teeth and his eyes are now squeezed shut.

“Are you okay?!”

He nods, but doesn’t let Kazuma take out his finger, holding it down with his hand. “Keep going, Kazuma. Get it out of me.”

The desperation in Chrono’s voice drips like the syrup on Kazuma’s fingers.

The syrup goes lower and lower and lower. It drips slowly, tantalizing and mouthwatering.

“Okay.”

He starts to dig deeper, feeling the seed slowly come out. Chrono’s making noises that Kazuma wants to say _aren’t_ moaning, but that’s what it is and Kazuma needs to accept that. It’s only serving to make everything start to get blurry around the edges.

With a sound Kazuma can’t hope to describe, the seed comes out and Chrono grits his teeth and nearly _screams._

Chrono’s biting down so hard on his lip it bleeds. Moans and expletives pour out of his mouth in a way Kazuma can’t ever hope to get enough of.  

The same pink syrup that was affecting the air seeps out of the empty fissure. Chrono’s shuddering and shaking.

Kazuma’s brain is getting fuzzy.

He can’t think straight. He can’t even see properly, he needs to blink for the world to come into focus and suddenly Chrono’s moaning again but Kazuma doesn’t know _why--_

Until he blinks and the blurry world is clear again. His mouth is on Chrono’s neck, and a taste unlike anything else sits on his tongue, heavy on his tongue like medicine and sweeter than anything Kazuma had ever tasted.

Kazuma tries to understand what just happened but all he can think of is how Chrono tastes.

He wants more.

_More._

It’s addicting, just like everything else about Chrono. No matter what Kazuma did, he could never, ever, ever seem to get enough.

He leans back in, running his tongue over the empty hole and then dragging it across the rest of them. Chrono practically _whines_ and now Kazuma doesn’t know if the syrup could compare to Chrono’s voice in this moment.

“Kazuma,” he pants, eyes glassy. “It feels good.”

“I could tell.” The dark-haired male has enough coherent thought to smirk at his boyfriend. Without thinking, he licks his lips, eager for more. “It tastes…”

Chrono’s eyes are half-lidded.

“Good. It’s not overly sweet, or that fake sweetness. It’s genuine, and it has a consistency like honey--”

“Kazuma.” Chrono interjects. “How many cooking shows have you watched recently?”

“Listen. They’re good.”

The redhead rolls his eyes, but the the couple meets eyes and the daze sets in again. Kazuma gently scrapes the seeds with his nails and Chrono shudders.

He goes in again with his mouth against Chrono’s neck, higher up this time. Higher up than the seeds were, even. Sure, he swept his tongue across the seeds again to get that flavor-- but no matter how sweet that syrup was, Chrono’s skin had and always would be more irresistible.

Kazuma bites down, feeling the syrup in his mouth get on Chrono’s neck. A bruise forms and he grins.

“Did you just give me a hickey?” Chrono runs his hands through Kazuma’s hair and gently tugs, with a frown on his face. “We’ve gotten kind of away from ourselves.”

“I don’t think I mind. Do you?”

“No.” Chrono responds, and Kazuma pulls him in for a kiss.

Panting, the raven-haired male pulls away for a split second. “If this is too gross, just tap my shoulder a couple times and I’ll stop.”

Chrono shakes his head and grabs Kazuma by the collar. Their lips almost crash together, desperate because of the thick sweet scent in the air, the room soaked with haziness.

Because of that sweet, sweet syrup on both of their tongues.

When they part, a strand of the light pink liquid keeps them attached. Chrono leans his head on Kazuma’s chest, every breath he takes a heavy pant. He tries to wipe away the syrup dripping down his chin, but his arms are too heavy.

Kazuma raises his hand and wipes it off of Chrono's chin with his thumb. Then he licks the syrup off his finger.

Chrono snorts. “Gross.”

“Wow, if you think this is gross, I don’t want to know what you thought of everything else we just did.”

“Mmm, just jokin’.” The redhead’s arms are still wrapped around his boyfriend’s waist, but his grip has loosened. He grinds himself against Kazuma, and lets out a soft gasp. “Um.”

Kazuma grins in a way that Chrono knows wants more than a kiss or to bite Chrono’s neck, shoulders, chest or thighs.

“Should we go in the bathroom instead? I wouldn’t want to mess up your bed. This syrup’s gonna stain your sheets permanently if it gets on there.” His eyes narrow and he slips his fingers through Chrono’s belt loops.

Looking down at the sheets that somehow hadn’t gotten stained yet, Chrono nods. “Seems like a good idea to me. I don’t want to explain needing new sheets.”

They get off the bed, and Chrono immediately stumbles over, crashing back on the bed. His ears are red.

Kazuma resists the urge to laugh, and instead opts for lifting Chrono up. The redhead screeches.

“Kazuma?!”

He starts walking. “I can only do this for so long, so enjoy it while it lasts.” At Kazuma’s pace, it doesn’t take too long for them to reach the bathroom. “Alright, hold on.”

Chrono’s arms are wrapped around Kazuma’s arms as his boyfriend sets him down. He’s still leaning on Kazuma for support. “...Thanks.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

They lean in at the same time, kissing again.

“Kazuma?” Chrono asks, with a gentle smile on his face and love in his eyes.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Kazuma’s heart beats loudly in his chest, and he kisses Chrono again. Not as deeply as some the other times, but enough to make Chrono smile when he pulls away. “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> (CHANTING) LOTUS! LOTUS! LOTUS! LOTUS! LOTUS! LOTUS!
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! I had soooo much fun writing this. It accidentally came out wayyy more porn-y than I had intended, so sorry!! This is a bit of a (chef kiss) response to sventeen's naoai lotus fic!! Thanks so much to everyone who enabled me to give in and write this, and thanks as always to my proofreader! 
> 
> And as always, thank you so much for reading! My twitter is @shindouchrono if you want to talk Vanguard, KZKR, or lotus with me!!! :D!!!


End file.
